MapleStory (Korean: 메이플스토리) is an online computer game is developed by the South Korean company Wizet in 2003. It is a side-scrolling, 2D MMORPG. It is client-based, which means that you must download the software in order to play the game. The software can be downloaded at the official MapleStory website. However, at over 5GB, it is advisable to use a download manager to download the game which most versions of the game already provide. MapleStory is completely free to register and play, although there is a "Cash Shop" where players can use real-world money to buy items that aren't available through the in-game currency, Mesos.

Beginners find that the game is not dark or violent, and that the environment is actually a sunny, friendly place with small snails and mushrooms as some of the monsters. Overall, gameplay is fairly simple: attack monsters, gain levels, attack stronger monsters. As players spend time in game level up, they can equip new weapons and clothes, gain more Mesos, and interact with others. Participants can also receive tasks, known as quests, from NPCs (Non Playable Characters) to earn additional rewards. MapleStory is noted for its statistic intensive planning, where one wrong allocation can set your character back a few levels, or infinitely at higher levels (the wrong choice in a skill, for example, can be completely wasted). Fortunately there are Cash Shop items to help undo the damage, but it comes with a price.

Although new players may think that MapleStory is only about leveling up and hunting monsters, MapleStory is also a place to socialize. With the Maple Messenger, buddy lists, guilds, and family system, MapleStory is a typical MMORPG, where users don't always have to hunt monsters and level up; they can take a break and chat whenever and to whomever they like.

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Game Updates

In Summer of 2010, Korean MapleStory launched Big Bang which was the first massively game-changing update to revamp nearly everything in the game. In Winter 2010 they launched Chaos, which brought class rebalances, a Profession system that allows players to create items, and the hugely anticipated PvP mode. Next up was Legends, which brought three new classes and allowed Korean MapleStory to achieve a record amount of players concurrently online (700,000). Next up was Justice, which brought the long-awaited Thief and Pirate revamps, a new Hero class, and Azwan, a high leveled battle quest. Summer 2012 brought Tempest, launching three more classes, and a whole new world. Unlimited launched in Winter of the same year, bringing another 2 new classes with an overhaul on equipment stats, many updates follow as MapleStory progresses.

Versions

Several versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions, and each is published by various companies. There are localized versions for South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, South East Asia and Europe. All other players play on the Global version. Each version of the game progresses with different speeds of patching, but most of the versions follow the first version, which is KoreaMS. Some versions have different names for their patches. Within each version are various "worlds" that characters exist in. Players may create up to fifteen characters in each world, but in some versions, players can create up to 21 characters. All players are only given three slots in each world, each release of a new class will give everyone a new character slot. To have another character slot, players must buy a character slot from the Cash Shop. In most versions, characters, items, and mesos are not transferable between worlds, but Global was the first version that added the ability to transfer characters between worlds with a Cash Shop item but was later removed to prevent hackers moving off to other worlds.

The following is a list of the game versions, their publishers, and their region(s) of interest: